The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-06-07
TIE SWEET GIRL GRADUATES,
TIE WNNE NE'F
What Is In Store for Them After School
DAyH2

What Is In Store for Them After School
DayS2
Summer Is coming, says the New York
Mail and Express, and the annual food Of
girl graduates is about ready to deluge the
land, Commencement day, with it's white
gowns, ls berIbboned essay, and its
touching sense of the high aspirations to
be reached after in lie, Is q charming OC-
Cssion. But after graduation, what thenF
Boast ss much as you like about the
progress OF the girl, she iR, alter all, rather
a helpless being still, and however salts:
factory helplessness in woman msy be In
poetry or in theory, in actual life 1t is far
from being the happieat lot in the world.
SomethinR more than two-thiTds, 1t 10
sometimes put as high as inur.atths, Of all
the adult women in New York are wage
earnsrs, but what does their need Of dol
lars amount to? A majority Of them aV'
orsge less than 81 a day, aud $40 or $l5 q
week marks the limit Of the ambition Of
the ordinary salary:worEsr. Women may
bs seli.suppoyting, but very lew, Compar.
stively speaking, have reached that point
where they look beyond subsistence 10 O
comfortable competency, as men reckon
such matters, or to getting rich,
It ia true enough in q way, that the
range OF Women's industries Ia broadening,
Business circles, in the city at least,
recognizes very little d~istlnCtion nowadays
between what Is properly women's work
snd men'a work, except the all important
dividing line OF pay. Go into any large
manuisctnEy, whether Of wearing apparel,
household furnishings, or articles con.
neCted distinctly with mems labor, and
somewhere about the building, working
with needle or brush, tending a machine,
keeping books, or manipulating q type
whiar, you will find q woman at work.
On the other hand, start any new indus
try, | care not how specially adapted to
women's nImble fingers OF keen syeBight
or inaight, and II there Is "money in 1t"
the woman comes into immediate com.
petition with q man. The art OF earning
q living for man or woman either 10 one
that involves a good deal Of thought and
study, more Of each with every year that
goes by.
With The higher class Of industries to
which women aspire the case ia much the
same as with the lower. Teaching Is mis-
ersbly oVsrCrowGed, and except under I'm.
usual circumstances Ia the most unsatis.
factory Of stSIs to lean on. Journalism is
uncertain and not an easy profession to
get o start in. Literature, without the
highest order Of talent, 10 hopeless, Lee.
turing has passed its prime. Public read
Ing Is going the same way. In music,
vocal and instrumental, except Tor the one
rarely gifted in 100000, there is an abso.
lutte Glut Of the market. To be q third.
rate musician is 10 fail outright. To psint
daubs and call them pictures Is q sin. To
murder the modern languages by Ialse &C.
cent hath not forgiveness in this world.
Taken collectively, the difference be-
tween men and women-and II lie an inf.
mite diGerenCe-is Comprahended in five
syllablss-organizRtion. What is nation,
q State, q city, a church, the public school
system, any modern institution whatever ?
a corporation Of men In which women
arc disconnected units. What are buei-
uess firms and industrlGl concerns Of every
d%escriptionP Organizations Of two or more
men with rarely u woman partner among
them.
Women have done much, but 1t 10 as
we'll not to exploit their suCcessss too
loudly till they have done more. They
need u business education in buBinesO
principles, regular hours Of work, the
same ~thoroughness that q Now England
housokeepsr puts into baking and clean.
ing, that q society girl deVotes to dressing
and her mother throws into keeping up
the round Of calls. They need above ave-
rything else faith in themselves and busi-
ness courage. |.